Six Words? We Exist Because These Stories Exist
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WORD SIX S S T O R A I C E I S R O E F M IM A M TO I G GR IN AT M ION CO , IDENTITY, AND BY WRITERS FAMOUS & OBSCURE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITED BY BEST-SELLING LARRY SIX-WORD SMITH MEMOIRS SERIES Los Angeles • New York Due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter in the current political environment, a handful of names have been changed at the request of the authors. Copyright © 2017 Larry Smith Fresh Off the Boat © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Published by Kingswell, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Kingswell, 1101 Flower Street, Glendale, California 91201. Editorial Director: Wendy Lefkon Executive Editor: Laura Hopper Cover Design by Shannon Koss ISBN 978-1-368-00838-9 FAC-020093-17202 Printed in the United States of America First Hardcover Edition, September 2017 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Foreword by Nahnatchka Khan & Melvin Mar I was born in Las Vegas; both my parents were born in Iran. My family was full of characters: dad, mom, grandfather, aunts, uncles, (I remember one uncle telling us all to call him Panther) . and they all helped shaped my sense of humor. For me, being a first-generation American, coming from a family of immigrants, it was always impor- tant to tell stories from the inside out. We are telling our story, we are not being told our story. We’re not being looked at in a fishbowl, we’re looking out at the world through a different lens, with a different perspective. Fresh Off the Boat has that same courage. We are confident in who we are, we’re not apologizing for it, we’re not thankful for it, we own it, we live in it every day. And now is our time to share it. My six words? We exist because these stories exist. —Nahnatchka Khan, creator/executive producer, Fresh Off the Boat SIX WORDS VI My father was the last son to immigrate to America from China. Our family had a long history with this country dating back to the early days of California. They helped build America, but always felt they weren’t a part of America. Growing up, my father told me not to make waves. “Keep your head down, do your work, be respectful. You can never go wrong that way.” In many ways, I think my father was right about the realities of surviving in a new country; that was what it was about for his generation. They did the bravest thing: leaving their home to come for a better life for themselves and their family in America, the land of opportunity. Whether it was working on the railroad, to later generations working in Chinatown kitchens or delivering groceries to those same restaurants, they have been an integral part of America. Being the first generation born here, it’s my duty to tell our story and participate in making this country a better place. My six words? I owe it to my father. —Melvin Mar, executive producer, Fresh Off the Boat FRESH OFF THE BOAT VII This book is inspired by our audience, by viewers across the country, across cultures, and across generations. They tell us that in the story of our television family they see reflections of their own families. That the show could resonate so personally is rewarding; that through this collaboration with Six-Word Memoirs it can also be a catalyst for storytelling is exciting. In the pages ahead are hundreds of stories. We hope you enjoy them and will kick things off with Six-Word Memoirs from our cast and creative team. Designed in Asia, assembled in California.—Ian Chen, “Evan Huang” “Where are you from?” I’m Irish-Korean. —Kourtney Kang, co-executive producer SIX WORDS VIII Mom’s recipes get ruined by me. —Randall Park, “Louis Huang” Thanksgiving dinner with samosas and turkey. —Rachna Fruchbom, coproducer I learned Hinduism from Urban Outfitters. —Sanjay Shah, co-executive producer Still amazed they let me in. —David Smithyman, executive story editor FRESH OFF THE BOAT IX 我的美国梦想实现了. My American dream has come true. —Lucille Soong, “Grandma Huang” Warning! Land of Opportunity includes “standup.” —Sheng Wang, story editor Hot pot, free to be me. —Forrest Wheeler, “Emery Huang” My family’s why I can fly. —Hudson Yang, “Eddie Huang” FRESH OFF THE BOAT 1 Introduction by Larry Smith Grounded in Our Roots, We Rise As a young boy, I used to love walking down the Atlantic City boardwalk with my grandfather, Morris Smith, whom everyone called “Smitty.” Smitty was a small-town pharmacist who immigrated to Philadelphia from Russia in 1914, escaping a war. Just a small boy of four, my grandfather surely didn’t realize his family’s decision to come to America was a lot like so many other American journey stories, both in its simplicity and in its seriousness: they came hoping for a better life. My grandfather and I never got very far strolling down the boardwalk. He would inevitably run into someone he knew, and we’d spend the whole time swapping stories with friends, old and new. He talked to everyone. One day it dawned on me that Smitty rarely recounted his early days in America. In fact, I really didn’t really know my grandfather’s story—a total “fail” for me as a journalist. So I asked him. He was reticent at first: “My story? Who would be interested in that?” Once he got talking, he didn’t want to stop. I not only learned about my grandfather’s family history, but I better understood my own place in the world. That’s what a good story can do. SIX WORDS 2 Since that day, I’ve been on a quest to help people tell, share, and seek stories. In 2006, while running a website with Rachel Fershleiser and Tim Barkow, I found that a surprisingly effective way to seek stories was by asking a simple question: Can you describe your life in six words? The prompt was a personal twist on the legend of Ernest Hemingway’s six-word story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” I saw how wonderful the constraint of six words could be as people responded to this challenge with brief stories that were poignant, memorable, and surprising. Ten years and more than one million six- word stories later, Six-Word Memoirs has become a best-selling book series, a popular lesson plan in classrooms, and a tool for self-expression in environments as varied as churches, therapy groups, weddings, and corporate meetings across the world. Six Words Fresh Off the Boat: Stories of Immigration, Identity, and Coming to America is the ninth book in the series, and it brings me all the way back to the start as we ask: Who are we as a nation? How does a family’s journey to America tell the story of this country as a whole? These questions have been answered, six words at a time, by recent immigrants and refugees, by descendants of the Mayflower and those brought by force on slave ships, and by every generation in between. As always, we’ve invited a handful of celebrities to share their stories, creating a book with a mix of Emmy, Oscar, and Pulitzer Prize winners FRESH OFF THE BOAT 3 alongside hundreds of people who have never before been published. And while this project, which asks a timeless question about American identity, was conceived before the election of the forty-fifth president of the United States, the unsettling political climate for immigrants that he has ushered in has made the discussions that follow from these stories more vital than ever. To gather stories for this book, we put out a call for entries on SixWordMemoirs.com and on our social media channels, as did our collaborators at the acclaimed ABC series Fresh Off the Boat. We were invited to work with English-language classes for recent immigrants and refugee organizations across the US. We spent time at naturalization ceremonies and among tour groups at Ellis Island. We put down our smartphones, turned to the people next to us while waiting in lines, and asked one simple question: “What’s your story?” This book is comprised of their answers. The writer and MacArthur “genius” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (who shares her own six words on page 203), has spoken on “the danger of the single story.” The single story, she says, creates stereotypes, resulting in one story being heard as the only story. The six-word form, above all, offers a simple, engaging way to let thousands of stories be told within a limited space. Since each story is just six words—whether written by a Tony winner SIX WORDS 4 or a guy named Tony—it’s also an egalitarian format that allows many voices to be heard. Everyone has a story. The sum of our stories is who we are and how we define ourselves as a nation. My grandfather’s story—a story of a little boy who escaped Russia with his family during World War I, worked his way through college, opened a small business, became involved in his community, and, ultimately, made life easier for his children—is the American dream.